News from the 4th week in 104

Our fourth week of school was a busy one! We took our first "No Excuse" spellling test on Monday--we found out that MANY of us need to study more over the weekend! Spellingcity.com is a good resource--remember that we looked at it on the SmartBoard this week!

We made a trip to the Nature Center to review the things we learned last year in fourth grade like ecosystems (pond and forest), solids liquids gases and properties of matter, and made lots of observations about the changes we saw there since our last visit.

I was out two mornings this week--one for school improvement and the other for training for our new social studies program. Both Ms. Bartle and I are very excited to use the new materials. There are lots of great learning opportunities with this program and we can't wait to try them out. First we learn about the Native Americans then off to learn how our country was formed. Stay tuned parents!

Upcoming events--the Fun(d) Run is this week (Tues and Wed if rainy) and not all kids have turned in their permission slip to walk to the Nature Center for it. It came home a while ago from the PTO and looked like a regular field trip permission slip. Please check to see if you still have it and send it in ASAP. The PTO appreciates your support of both funding this and joining the PTO for $5. It really helps Cooley when we are all participating and working towards a common goal!

MEAP will begin on Oct. 12. Please send your child well rested and with a good breakfast in their tummy--we want to all do our personal best this year.

We love our new SmartBoard! It is a great way to review and to also do lots of cool things in our curriculum. In fact, many of the lessons in our social studies program include its use.

Finally, we attended our first in-school field trip in our Cooley Design Center on Monday where we worked and built LEGO race cars that actually moved. We raced them and then had to problem solve our way through the dilemmas of too heavy, too light, broken pieces, accidents, and re-engineering our trials. Great learning was had by all--even the teachers!

We had another fantastic week! Our class meetings are productive and we are working out our kinks as we form our learning community. It's fun to watch the thinking come alive right in room 104!